Four hundred years ago, in September 1609, Henry Hudson sailed with his ship The Half Moon to the island of Manhattan, determined to find a sea route to China. The passage to the Pacific Ocean did not exist, but the mission did provide for a lucrative trade in beaver fur. What Hudson could not know was that his discovery would eventually grow into the capitol of the world: New York. Its beacon, the Statue of Liberty, became a powerful symbol for the entire United States.
Many after Hudson undertook the big crossing to the New World for chances of a better life. The pioneers of the past, amongst whom were many people of the province of Zeeland (‘Zeeuwen’), left their footprints in the landscape of the New World and wrote the history of this relatively young country. The tracks are still there: names of places, street names, old churches, cemeteries, mills and barns are silent reminders of the first settlers. Still there are ‘Zeeuwen’ who give up their old lives to start all over again in the U.S.: maybe it is a dream they have to pursue, maybe The Netherlands have become too small or maybe they have found the love of their lives.
Four hundred years of Dutch emigration and trade relationship between the two countries: in the coming months more will be known about the festivities around NY400. There are plans for a festival both in Amsterdam and New York, a Dutch Village at Battery Park in Manhattan, a cruise with Dutch flat sailing ships on the Hudson River and a job swap between the Netherlands and New York. The province of Zeeland also participates in the activities, that in September will come to a climax with the publication of a book by the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg.
April last year I met for my work as a reporter of the Dutch local newspaper PZC, Hans Krabbendam, Ph.D., of the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg. He lectured on the ’Zeeuwse’ emigration to America, a subject of which little is known to the general public. He claimed that the ‘Zeeuwen’ have made an important contribution to the Dutch-American culture, as the province Zeeland in the nineteenth century ranked the Dutch emigration wave.
Once I have sworn loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, as the emigrants at Ellis Island did long time ago, but I turned the country down as I choose the chance of making a career in Zeeland, my place of birth, my homeland. This late winter will give me a second chance.
In a journey that begins and ends in New York I will be looking for ’Zeeuwen’ who have made and are still shaping American history. As, for example, reverend (‘dominee’) Adriaan Zwemer from Oostkapelle did, who travelled to places as far as Albany (NY), South Holland (Il) and Middelburg (IA) and founded communities, schools and churches along the way. I will also research the whereabouts of the families of the fishermen villages of Yerseke and Bruinisse, who took up their old profession of oyster farming on Long Island (NY). I’ll travel to the villages of Zeeland, Middelburg and Oostburg, all places with a ‘Zeeuwse’ name. I will visit a couple of ‘Zeeuwse’ students on a campus for an insight view in the American schooling system, and I want to attend a rehearsel of a traditional Dutch folklore dancegroup, wich claims to have more ‘Zeeuwse’ costumes then ours. The trip will include a Zeeland mussel farm in Maine, the descendants of a rich Northern Beveland farmer who at the age of sixty started all over again in South Carolina and a ’Nieuwerkerkse’ who is now wholesale trader in fruit and vegetables at Hunts’ Point, The Bronx.
Did you know that New York was reconquered by the Zeeuwen in 1673 (only to be given back to the British at the Treaty of Westminster in 1674)? It was the Zeeuwse Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Younger who did the job with 8 warships on august 8-9th. New York was promptly rebaptised New Orange and Antony Colve became the new Governor. Evertsen also sailed up to Albany (which was rechristened Willemstad). The States of Zeeland thus became master of the territory but subsequently managed to transfer through the States General formal authority to the Amsterdam admirality. New Orange/New York was given back to the British a year later, at the Treaty of Westminster (February 19, 1674).
Thanks for reminding me of that fact. I will probably include Evertsen’s story in a feature article that I’ll be writing on the exhibition Panorama of New York, by artists of the Salmagundi Club, the oldest arts club of New York. Twelve huge paintings that express the history of Manhattan. I am not sure where the show is right now, it should be in one of the galleries in New York. It will be shipped by the end of August to Flushing in the Netherlands.